Furnished with the information thus obtained we proceeded to make some
arrangements respecting the obtaining of men and the
Stores we should
require for their equipment as well as for presents to the Indians; and
on the following day a requisition was made on the Companies for eight
men each and whatever useful stores they could supply. We learned with
regret that, in consequence of the recent lavish expenditure of their
goods in support of the opposition, their supply to us would of necessity
be very limited. The men too were backward in offering their services,
especially those of the Hudson's Bay Company who demanded a much higher
rate of wages than I considered it proper to grant.
June 3.
Mr. Smith, a partner of the North-West Company, arrived from the Great
Slave Lake bearing the welcome news that the principal chief of the
Copper Indians had received the communication of our arrival with joy and
given all the intelligence he possessed respecting the route to the
sea-coast by the Copper-Mine River; and that he and a party of his men,
at the instance of Mr. Wentzel, a clerk of the North-West Company whom
they wished might go along with them, had engaged to accompany the
Expedition as guides and hunters. They were to wait our arrival at Fort
Providence on the north side of the Slave Lake. Their information
coincided with that given by Beaulieu. They had no doubt of our being
able to obtain the means of subsistence in travelling to the coast.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 201 of 649
Words from 54322 to 54587
of 176017
